[Alumni-chat] Candlelight Vigil and a Wailing Wall

[dl bahr]

I have been having a fantasy about the upcoming BoT meeting and negotiations.  This meeting is scheduled for February 25th, isn't it?  In Yellow Springs, correct?

If I were in Yellow Springs, which I won't be because I am working and do not have the time off.  If I were there I would light a candle and stand outside the building where the meeting were taking place--maybe I'd get a few folding chairs when my legs got tired.  Maybe a small folding table and a thermos of tea or coffee or if I got really cold flask of whiskey.  I wouldn't shout.  I wouldn't beg.  I would sit/stand there with a candle.  And when I got tired, I would make sure someone else was there to hold the candle, to pass "the torch" so to speak.  Make sure there are some matches or a lighter in your pocket.  In fact, I would hold a Community meeting and have sign up sheets so that there would always be someone sitting or standing with that candle for a few days leading up to this meeting.  24/7 someone would be sitting there.  Maybe one or two, like a sentry post, a few Union members sitting on the picket line with a thermos of coffee and a candle, or a mother preparing for the next meal lighting the candle at the supper table, perhaps an oracle in the Ancient City of Antioch keeping the altar fire burning, or like Bill Chappelle and Jim and Zebra all gathered for a party after the show singing "This Little Light of Mine" I am going to let it shine, sitting in the living room singing with friends and a candle lit when you are almost too tired to play any more but there is still a song or two left and you are enjoying the time with friends.

I would make sure there were sign up sheets for people to bring a sandwich or some treat to eat for those keeping post, with a lighted candle.

Then I got to imagining a wall behind me where I was sitting.  A wall where people could come to post things, stick a prayer in the cracks, write the name of a beloved Antiochian they remember.  Someone who made a difference.  Someone who came and lived on that campus and walked those sidewalks, someone who sat in those chairs, someone who did some wild and crazy things as Antiochians tend to do, someone sweet who loved us or inspired us or lent a shoulder to cry on or who cried with us.  Someone who let us mooch off of them when we were young and in a strange city for the first time or were a refugee from some worn and brokedown family or town or country.  Someone who found a new alternative for themselves in the shadows of those lofty towers.  

Maybe we could even get a few who can't be there to send a name, a memory or vision that could be added to the wall.  I'd make sure to send some hand and toe warmers--since it is pretty chilly in OH these days.  Not as cold as in Minnesota but then Minnesotans are the toughest when it comes to cold.  (It is much tougher to be a Minnesotan than an Antiochian...but some of us get to be both...or at least marry one.)

We see the outpourings after a tragedy candles lit, posts full of writing--what if our outpouring came while there was still hope, while there was still a place to love, a deal yet to be negotiated?  A letter of intent still to be signed off on.    What if Antioch could find its way forward to a future? What if we wrote down our prayers for what we want to see for our future.  Or drew a picture or scribbled some graffitti...what would we say, who would we invoke?  This invocation is needed along with the checks we will need to write.  What and who would we invoke--who would we invite to come sit with us?

Well we can't really build a wall outside of administration but I keep thinking we need a post, a presence.  In MN we have this bright orange fencing for keeping the snow from drifting where we do not want it.  They sell it at Menards or Fleet Farm and you can buy a roll of it for cheap.  So in my fantasy Candle Light Vigil and Wailing Wall Installation to Save Antioch--my wall is actually a bright orange snow fence.  It is portable.  If you get lost in a blizzard it gives you something bright to follow and keeps the animals in and the snow out.  It shows you where to dig when the drive way needs to be dug out or a path is needed to get to the barn when the animals need to be fed or the cows milked.  I would have that fence stretched out making a port of entry into administration like a construction zone and I would have paper available and some pens so that passers by might write a name or a memory or an inspiration or a picture down and they could post it.  I also know that whoever walks into those meetings would see it also.  They would see the candle burning.  They would see me and my buddies sitting there, and they would definitely see that bright orange snow fence with all kinds of pieces of paper on it.  They would know that people care about Antioch College and are willing to keep a candle burning for it.  

We do it peacefully, we do it with lots and lots of heart, and we do it together, a little at a time.

We remind Toni Murdock and Art Zucker and all the other individuals who hold the power in this situation, that they would not be in the positions they are in if it were not for Antioch College.  We remind them that they cannot close down this campus like it is only a real estate deal or a sneaky suspension when no one is looking.  We remind them that Antioch College is not a thing in the past, it is also for the future.  We remind them that Antioch College despite its edgy and experiemental nature is a living, breathing institution with a body electric that is alive and percolating.  It is a proud institution with deep roots and an amazing legacy and you cannot just throw that away.  You strive to make it better, you do not just fold up the show and move on.  It is an institution like marriage, like show biz, like a street smart college and a hardworking farm...it is not a corporation that moves to another place...it has historical roots that need to be honored and allowed to nourish--it cut back only to grow higher and fuller at a future date. 

 I might get a symbolic tree--maybe a small sampling in a pot sitting next to my folding table and chairs and my bright orange snow fence with all the pieces of paper, and my burning candle and my living body.

Although Antioch has been edgy and experimental, it is much more than that and we are much more than that.  It is easy to forget and ignore but sometimes our strength needs to be asserted in a peaceful but strong manner.  It is not just an experiment that is over, it is a living, feeling, creative and dynamic place that needs to be championed not snuffed out.  We can do better than we have and we need to do better than we have but Antioch College does not and should not die.

If I were in Yellow Springs I would be showing up with my candle and getting other people to sign up too.  I am out here in cyberspace taking part in the greek choir, this silly greek choir.  Does anyone remember John Ronsheim getting his choir to sing--no matter what occassion or how few, the choir got up a sang--because it is the Breath--singing is breathing---it is Life--you must sing--you must have a choir.  So I am out here in Minnesota being one of the choir members hoping that a greek tragedy might turn into a Antioch Choir--full of breath, full of Life so alive that no Toni Murdock or wimpy BoT could ever shut it down.  We are too alive and if one us is not there then another one is holding the candle.

Lesley A Pownall Bahr




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